The End of a Strange and ScaryYear
How to ‘wrap up’ or thematize or otherwise encapsulate a year that moved the entire world so deeply into chaos. From the Los Angeles fires in January through the mass shootings of a cold mid-December weekend, and everything in between, this has been a year to stay strong, stay focused, and keep on keeping on. As Heather Cox Richardson said, “Just keep your foot on the gas.” Remember: Resistance is Fertile.
Running a nonprofit right now may feel like a wild ride down Highway 1 near Big Sur that requires a foot on the brakes and the gas, a firm hand on the wheel, and nerves of steel — and all of this without knowing what’s around the next hairpin bend in the road. We get it.
We have already navigated the loss of federal funding, executive orders that forbid many of our commitments and methodologies, a precarious economy, rising costs, and military bullying of our communities. Still TBD: how the government intends to apply “the prohibition on material support to foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs)” to U.S. nonprofits. All the organizations I know are weighing their decisions against the possibility of potential harassment, termination of tax-exempt status, or worse.
I’m glad to say that the groups we work with are standing strong and standing together. We are so proud, and admire so much all that they — and all of you — do. A few examples follow. We at Ultra do what we do because these groups are just so freaking amazing. It makes us happy to work with them and help them make the world a better place.
Arm of the Sea Theater’s 2025 season include so many amazing free and by-donation events, as well as free conservation exhibits on the former Brownfield site they cleaned up and turned into a waterfront park for the community of Saugerties.
Nightboat Books joined a coalition of independent presses, poets, writers, and translators in a 24-hour Global Reading for Freedom of Expression & Solidarity with Palestine.
Sing Sing Prison Museum responded to the Fall of Freedom call to action with a program featuring books recently banned in NYS prisons, in cooperation with community partners RTA Arts and Hudson Valley Books for Humanity.
Along with a riveting season of live performance, The Local Saugerties added a reading and conversation with Iranian journalist Fatemeh Jamalpour on the occasion of her new book For the Sun After Long Nights. It’s truly essential reading.
Belladonna Collaborative and four other presses founded Poetry Corporation, a mutual aid publishing cooperative to share resources and have one another’s back.
Great Small Works offered a performance that culminated in asking people to join them in getting trained in community defense and neighborhood organizing through Hands Off NYC.
The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is planning a 2026 season dedicated to the contributions of immigrant women to contemporary American music.
Fence Magazine donated free issues to LittleFreeLibrary.org and also offered this brillz satire as they refused the NEA grant and its letter of compliance.
Sprial House Park launched an ecological gardening series, as part of its multiform commitment to sustainable land usage.
& SO, SO MUCH MORE!
We see you, you beautiful organizations doing all that you do and also showing up for ALL of us, our communities, our right to be ourselves, to be outspoken, to be safe and heard and seen and right here.
THANK YOU ALL!
Some words of wisdom for the coming year, months, weeks, minutes:
To quote Vu Le, “All of us are on edge as we try to navigate this rapid collapse of democracy and the US’s slide into a totalitarian regime. I don’t recall a time, even during the early years of the pandemic, when there was this much constant and relentless stress and fear. The resulting anxiety, anger, and other negative emotions get misdirected to ourselves and the people closest to us, often without our being conscious of it. This is a tactic and goal of fascism, as a populace that is constantly on edge and emotionally dysregulated is easier to control.
We’re in for a long fight, so let’s agree to try and be nicer to ourselves and one another, and save our anger and frustrations for those with power and privilege who are enabling the shitstorm we’re dealing with.”
Along the same lines, adrienne maree brown writes, “We are up against massive systems, massive opposition – we can be so overwhelmed and fearful about the scale of what we are up against that it feels easier to point out the way these systems are functioning amongst us than to go for the source. The work of building something powerful and massive begins small, begins in relationships where we can be ourselves, be accountable for our mistakes, be called into loving changes, be in mutual power.”
In brief, we need to support one another and save the anger for the fascists.
For 2026, we wish you more of what you already have in abundance — courage, good faith, creative brilliance, and the ability to see deeply and represent exquisitely.
May the world rise up to meet your goodness!
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